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The Greatest Story Ever Sold
(ENGAGEMENT RESCHEDULED 05/14/2007)
Ioana Patringenaru | January 29, 2007
Frank Rich usually shares his opinions from Manhattan,
where he is a columnist for The New York Times’
Op-Ed page. But this February, Rich is coming to UCSD
to talk about his views on culture and politics and
his latest book, "The Greatest Story Ever Sold."
The performance has
been rescheduled for 8 p.m. May 14 at the Price Center Ballroom.
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| Frank Rich |
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In this new three-hundred-page volume, Rich argues that the Bush White House used deft marketing and public relations after 9/11 to consolidate power, take the country to war with Iraq, and win the 2004 presidential election.
And Rich’s criticism doesn’t stop with the White House. Though he is a high-profile writer for a high-profile news organization, he also blames the media for colluding with the administration after 9/11. Many journalists failed to ask tough questions in the run up to the Iraq war, he argues. “About the only discouraging words to be found in the American mass media about America’s instant victory in Iraq was on a basic cable channel, Comedy Central” on Jon Stewart’s “Daily Show,” Rich wrote.
Here Rich’s background as the former front page columnist for The New York Times’ Sunday Arts & Leisure section and long-time theater reviewer comes into play. In his latest book, he often comes back to his roots as a drama and cultural critic to shed light on the events that followed 9/11. He argues that the Bush administration successfully produced and packaged an alternative reality, sold it to the media, and got Americans to go along with the White House’s plans here and abroad.
It should be noted that Rich sometimes writes about President Bush in scathing terms -- and book reviewers have criticized him for it. “The reader could more willingly go along with Mr. Rich’s conclusions if Mr. Rich’s disdain for the president as a person were less obvious, and if he occasionally gave Mr. Bush credit for some of his initiatives,” Craig Crawford, a news analyst for MSNBC, CNBC and CBS, wrote in The New York Times.
But Crawford also praised Rich’s book, calling it a “searing analysis” that is “meticulously researched.” The Washington Post called "The Greatest Story Ever Sold" “a gripping, witty, and devastating indictment.” “Future historians will turn to other works to understand White House and Pentagon decision-making after 9/11. But Rich's overview will be indispensable for grasping how Americans experienced the events of these years,” David Greenberg, who teaches history and media studies at Rutgers University, wrote in The Post.
Rich has worked at The New York Times since 1980. He has been writing Op-Ed pieces since 1994, most recently in The Times’ Week in Review section. In 1998, Random House published a collection of Rich’s drama reviews, titled "Hot Seat: Theater Criticism for The New York Times, 1980-1993." His childhood memoir "Ghost Light" came out in 2000.
Who: Frank Rich, columnist for The New York Times
When: 8 p.m. Monday May 14
Where: Price Center Ballroom
For information/tickets: (858) 534-TIXS www.artpower.ucsd.edu
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